Giving a high rating because I heard the organizer of the Long Now Foundation speak and it was very inspiring. The Interval Cafe in San Francisco is aGiving a high rating because I heard the organizer of the Long Now Foundation speak and it was very inspiring. The Interval Cafe in San Francisco is also awesome and has The Long Library in it.

I decided to give up eating processed sugar for the month of January, and so reading a book with this title seemed like it would help me adhere. And nI decided to give up eating processed sugar for the month of January, and so reading a book with this title seemed like it would help me adhere. And not only did it succeed in that goal, but I think it put a permanent, deep scare in me about sugar. The book basically argues that sugar is the root cause of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even a lot of cancer.

What is interesting is while all of us know that sugar is not good for us, the only thing that people officially blame on overconsumption of it is tooth decay. Obesity is highly correlated with diabetes, heart disease, and a number of other bad things. If you Google for the cause of obesity, you see statements like “Obesity is generally caused by eating too much and moving too little. If you consume high amounts of energy, particularly fat and sugars, but don't burn off the energy through exercise and physical activity, much of the surplus energy will be stored by the body as fat.” This book makes the argument that a calorie is not a calorie, that sugar is actually toxic, but unlike other toxins it takes decades of overconsumption to show up - which has made it hard to prove.

The statistics are fascinating. Fifty years ago, one in eight American adults was obese; today the number is greater than one in three. Diabetes has gone from 1 in 2,000-3,000 to 1 in 7-8, which is an astounding increase. The book listed numerous examples of native populations that suffered from a similar diabetes epidemic after adopting the “western diets and lifestyle”. What is it about western lifestyle that has done this? The culprit is almost certainly something in the diet, and linked to processed foods - and after reading this book, it seems very logical that sugar is either the root or one of the main root causes.

“By the late 1970s, though, sugar had mostly vanished from the discussion. Dietary fat had been implicated as a cause of heart disease. Nutritionists and public-health authorities responded by rejecting the idea that sugar could be responsible for the diseases that associated with heart disease, which included both obesity and diabetes.”

“To the sugar industry, it has been the gift that keeps on giving, the ultimate defense against all arguments and evidence that sugar is uniquely toxic. This is the idea that we get obese or overweight because we take in more calories than we expend or excrete. By this thinking, researchers and public-health authorities think of obesity as a disorder of “energy balance,” a concept that has become so ingrained in conventional thinking, so widespread, that arguments to the contrary have typically been treated as quackery, if not a willful disavowal of the laws of physics.”

“Fat” is often the culprit named for people getting fat (even the word is the same!), and thus was born a processed food industry that touts “low-fat” items (which are then rich in sugar+salt to offset the bad taste). But looking at populations that eat high fat content but low sugar, shows lower rates of obesity and heart disease. For instance, the French.

“When researchers realized that the French had relatively low rates of heart disease despite a diet that was rich in saturated fats, they wrote it off as an inexplicable “paradox,” and ignored the fact that the French traditionally consumed far less sugar than did populations— the Americans and British, most notably— in which coronary disease seemed to be a scourge. At the end of the eighteenth century, French per capita sugar consumption was less than a fifth of what it was in England. At the end of the nineteenth century, even after the beet-sugar revolution, France was still lagging far behind both the British and the Americans— thirty-three pounds for the French compared with eighty-eight for the English and sixty-six for Americans.”

The logic is basically: IF excess sugar (fructose notably) leads to insulin resistance, THEN we can say with confidence that it is likely a root cause of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer, as it’s been proven to be correlated with all those things. High fat diets - particularly the wrong sorts of fats - are also involved if eaten in excess. The logic seems solid - and yet even searching “what causes obesity” you don’t see sugar named as a key cause. I’d be very curious to learn from nutritionists what the think of this logic.

“Is it that we’re all simply eating too much and exercising too little, which is the one simple answer that the nutritional establishment will embrace in the face of so much evidence to the contrary? Another simple answer, and a more likely one, is sugar.”...more

Kevin Kelly, who is a Wired co-founder, lays out technological trends that are "inevitable". Like too many nonfiction books, I found a few chapters toKevin Kelly, who is a Wired co-founder, lays out technological trends that are "inevitable". Like too many nonfiction books, I found a few chapters to be worth reading, and a few not to be. I enjoyed the sections on AI and books. And sometimes just zooming out to get bigger perspective is engaging, which was the case for me in the sections on VR/AR and tracking. Much of the rest of the book seemed geared for people less technically savvy, which was my only complaint as it really drew the book out.

Kelly correctly identified the three key trends that are making AI an exciting space today: processing power (GPU's), data, and better algorithms. However he didn't dive more into the longest pole: how to get a lot more data than we have today - that seems to me to be the key. But cool to get an overview. He did address one of the big fears about automation that many people have today: will computers take all our jobs? The quick answer is yes, but we'll have new ones. This has already happened multiple times in history. I agree with this, but think the more interesting question is what will happen when we can provide most people the basics (food, water, shelter) for very little cost. This was predicted in Diamond Age, and the answer was "parking lots and chaos", and a lot of people with no purpose in life.

Another big idea that Kelly hits on that I think is big and inevitable is how each book will become networked, much as the WWW has. Once we have ability to have pointers into and out from each sentence of a book, the speed at which ideas will fly out of books will step function.

I haven't read a ton of "history of the world" books, but this was fascinating. Highly recommended. I think the author is incredibly good at explaininI haven't read a ton of "history of the world" books, but this was fascinating. Highly recommended. I think the author is incredibly good at explaining and simplifying big concepts. He take on complex things like religion & capitalism and explains them in very simple terms that you likely hadn't thought about before.

There was a fascinating bit on the scientific mindset, and how it was key to Europe taking power. After the scientific revolution, they believed in science and its ability to let man discover new things, make more money, etc. This made them into explorers, whereas many other cultures remained very static. Great example of China having had gunpowder for hundreds of years but not using it for anything other than fireworks, and didn't invent the gun. Reminded me a bit of the Mindset.

The chapter on capitalism was fascinating. There line about before its invention that the economy didn't grow, and was "frozen" as nobody poured money into new things, so there was no growth. Then the notion of credit was discovered, and as growth started, the combination snowballed. In 1500 the annual per capita production was $550 and today its $8,800 - this is an astounding increase, and all because of the virtuous growth cycle of capitalism: money is invested -> businesses grow -> people make money -> they invest their money. I never thought about the fact that reinvesting profits is a core piece of capitalism, but from this lens it really is.

What I didn't see coming is how the end of the book was dedicated to human happiness. Fascinating questions to ask if we are happier today than 1,000 or 2,000 years ago. By metrics of death rate, average age of death and general health, we ought to be. But clearly peasants after the agricultural revolution were on average less happy than they were before as hunter-gatherers. And now we live in an always-on internet age, with pressure to continue growing our economy. So are we happier? It is the right question, in my opinion. The book then gave the basics of the happiness framework that I've also read in other places and believe in: that people are happy when they have 3 things: (1) Friends and family that love them (2) Are part of a community that makes them feel like they below (3) have a purpose to their life and feel like they are doing something meaningful. However, the book then adds onto this in another way that I have been learning about but hadn't put together with this: meditation.

I kind of loved this book because it give a lot of the "why" - the science - behind a lot of best practices. This is the kind of thing that helps me cI kind of loved this book because it give a lot of the "why" - the science - behind a lot of best practices. This is the kind of thing that helps me change my behavior - when I know how it works under the hood.

The book is broken into a series of "brain rules" on different subjects. I'll list main takeaways:

ExerciseWe all know it's good for us and it feels good and we should do it. The best quote here was "Physical activity is cognitive candy." - also "A lifetime of exercise results in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared with those who are sedentary." The basic science is that blood flow through your brain is good for it and increases brain activity. Tip: exercise before you need your brain to be at its best.

SleepFirst, great to have validation that there really are early birds and night owls. I'm definitely a night owl, despite my kids best efforts. The interesting implications of this for a company are that people are at their best - their most productive - at different times of the day - so building a culture that is flexible and let's people work their hours is key. The science about the history of naps and the fact that the mid-afternoon slump is a real thing was also very interesting. The studies about sleep loss being as cognitively limiting as alcohol were also illuminating. Another study showed sleeping on a problem really does work.

But the most interesting thing about the sleep chapter was the section on dreaming and what it might mean. In particular, dreams may at least in large part be a method of neural network training to enforce learning. "humans appear to replay certain learning experiences at night, during the slow-wave phase."

StressToo much stress is bad for you - our systems weren't designed for constant stress. If you have too much adreline in your system constantly it leads to scarred blood vessels and then eventually a stroke. But a little stress is good - our brains will remember things that we are stressed about better (eg avoid predators on the savannah). But too much (chronic) stress can overwhelms the brain and hurts learning and can even make you depressed. Chronic stress is often the culprit in grief, or high anxiety households. The worst kind of stress is the feeling that you have no control over the problem— you are helpless.

Wiring“What you do and learn in life physically changes what your brain looks like— it literally rewires it.”

AttentionI’ve said for a long time that humans don’t remember facts, we remember facts couched in emotions. We can easily recall all the strong emotional moments of our lives as if they happened yesterday. Now it’s great to have the science behind this: emotions release dopamine, which greatly aids in memory and information processing. This means that people will relate better to products that bring up positive emotions for them. It also means that an emotional hook to lead into an idea or product will always work as it triggers the emotion in the person.

Another interesting thing mentioned in this chapter is the 10 minute rule. We only have about 10 minutes of attention on something before we start to tune out. As the book says, “This fact suggests a teaching and business imperative: Find a way to get and hold somebody’s attention for 10 minutes, then do it again.”

To get an idea to stick you have to give people the mental model for it first - “meaning before details”. Specifically, you need to: “Give the general idea first, before diving into details, and you will see a 40 percent improvement in understanding.” And then you also have to simplify and hammer home concepts and let people digest them - force-feeding too many concepts at once won’t sink in.

In terms of paying attention (vs automatic things like riding a bicycle), “Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth.” - the brain can only pay attention to one thing at a time.

MemoryThere are different types of memory: declarative (I can remember my address and SSN), non declarative (I can remember how to ride a bike), short term, and long term. Short term memory isn’t converted to long term easily: “People usually forget 90 percent of what they learn in a class within 30 days. And the majority of this forgetting occurs within the first few hours after class.”. Keys to doing so are coding in emotion (why word association works), and repetition (“repeat to remember”). Also, thinking about what tree the person will mentally group the information and how to increase entry points or create strong ones.

Interestingly, “Memory worked best, it appeared, if the environmental conditions at retrieval mimicked the environmental conditions at encoding.”. This means if you learn something sad you will remember it better if you get sad again. Fascinating. This makes sense, as our brains must group similar patterns it remembers together. To get practical, you can create science, art, language stations to help people remember better.

We all know this to be true - our memory isn’t perfect. This is because we remember patterns, not facts or single instances. “Our brains give us only an approximate view of reality, because they mix new knowledge with past memories and store them together as one.”

Another tidbit I liked, that fits in the “repeat to remember” bucket: “A great deal of research shows that thinking or talking about an event immediately after it has occurred enhances memory for that event”. Basically the more an idea can be repeated - especially in timed intervals - the more chance it has of being encoded from short term to long term memory.

Sensory IntegrationWe remember data from each of our senses, and we learn best if we stimulate multiple senses concurrently. You remember better if you see AND hear something, or even if given words and pictures. Smells or sounds or tastes can trigger additional associations or emotions and help us create positive or negative associations to things we see or do. This is why people who haven’t adopted digital reading say things like “I love the smell of a good book”, this is why smelling fresh roasted coffee is a key part of Starbucks playbook. Smells have the power to bring back memories that are associated with them.

VisionVision trumps and overrides all other senses. I loved the story about the wine experts who were fooled by white wine with red dye in it because their eyes said it was red wine. Fascinating to read about the science of how the brain takes in the signals from the eyes, combines both signals, and applies pattern matching to fill in details. This means the brain has creative freedom to insert whatever it wants into our vision.

Practical applications: our vision is caught by bold colors, orientations, motion. We remember images better than words because it’s easier to pattern match the image, so use images in presentations.

MusicMusic makes us more empathic - we can better recognize the emotions in speech, which helps in social abilities. Making music is 10x better for kids than listening to baby einstein CD’s. Listening to music reduced cortisol and stress.

GenderBoys and girls have different brain structures. When under stress, men remember the gist of things better, and women remember details and emotions. These quotes describe it well:

“The difference between girls’ and boys’ communication could be described as the addition of a single powerful word. Boys might say, “Do this.” Girls would say, “Let’s do this.”

“When girl best friends communicate with each other, they lean in, maintain eye contact, and do a lot of talking. They use their sophisticated verbal talents to cement their relationships. Boys never do this. They rarely face each other directly, preferring either parallel or oblique angles. They make little eye contact, their gaze always casting about the room. They do not use verbal information to cement their relationships. Instead, commotion seems to be the central currency of a little boy’s social economy. Doing things physically together is the glue that cements their relationships.”

“In our evolutionary history, having a team that could understand both the gist and details of a given stressful situation helped us conquer the world. Why would the world of business be exempted from that advantage? Having an executive team or work group capable of simultaneously understanding both the emotional forests and the trees of a stressful project, such as a merger, might be a marriage made in business heaven. It could even affect the bottom line.”

ExplorationWe learn by doing, by exploring the world. We take pleasure in that exploration. Discovery based learning is best. Medical school offers the best on the job learning - other types of education should do better to model it. Learn and be curious....more

Mark Watney is a steely-eyed missile man. A man's man. A badass mechanical engineer botanist astronaut who is stranded on Mars during a Nasa mission gMark Watney is a steely-eyed missile man. A man's man. A badass mechanical engineer botanist astronaut who is stranded on Mars during a Nasa mission gone wrong, and left to fend for himself. I listened to this on audio on a roadtrip, and it flew by - what a fun story. Not surprised at all it's being made into a movie directed by Ridley Scott starring Matt Damon. Also pretty amazing is that it was self-published.

There were two great things about this book: the humor and the science. The science appealed to the mechanical engineer in me - Watney is a bit like McGyver except he knows a lot more about chemistry and botany. I didn't double-check all the science, but loved the descriptions of all the math: calorie calculations, creating water, etc. Just fun stuff.

But the humor was top notch. Weir does a great job portraying a stranded man trying to remain upbeat by talking to himself in log entries. And the excellent audio narrator only made it better.

In the end, a well told story of survival against the odds. And one of belief - I liked the CNN Mark Watney watch - you could totally imagine how into this story the media would get. We humans love a good surviving against the odds story. ...more

A fascinating in-depth and well researched look at the processed food industry. I recommend this for anyone who buys food at a grocery or convenienceA fascinating in-depth and well researched look at the processed food industry. I recommend this for anyone who buys food at a grocery or convenience store (aka everyone). I read this book hoping to learn more about processed foods and how to avoid them, and I definitely got what I was looking for. Before reading this I was trying to avoid processed foods, and this book has helped increase that resolve, as well as educated me more on how to do it. It is absolutely amazing and frightening how many processed foods - some of which I remember fondly like Capri Sun - have enough salt/sugar/fat to easily account for a quarter or half of your daily recommended limit. This makes it super easy to go way over, and the result is unhealthy, fat Americans.

One of the more powerful things of this book was that Moss went deep into the food industry to really understand the dynamics at play. He didn't just demonize them for making the US one of the fattest countries in the world. He interviewed dozens of insiders - current and retired, to get their perspectives.

And the bottom line is scary. The food industry has zero incentive to produce healthier food. Because the high calorie food that they make that is stuffed with salt, sugar, and fat sells really well. It's tasty and convenient and cheap, and people buy whats tasty, and have no time or money to make or buy healthier options. And when the industry has tried to reduce the salt, sugar or fat, every time they find that it doesn't sell as well. Sure they have made some incremental improvements here and there, but by and large, the grocery store is a scary place if you don't want to vastly exceed your daily caloric intake.

It seems clear to me that things will never get better without government intervention - something that Moss also concludes in the book. Trying to understand a food label is impossible for most people, as (1) you have to know by heart the daily recommended values for calories, salt, sugar, and fat, and (2) you have to do math to figure out how many servings you are eating. Doing both of these just won't happen for 99% of the population, and thus we are where we are. We cannot rely on the food industry to make healthier products - we have make them do so by choosing with our wallets.

In my opinion, the FDA or someone in the government needs to get a good designer to fix food labels and get them to a state where any American can easily look at them and go "oh my gosh this [can of pasta sauce] will account for [a quarter] of my daily recommended [caloric/protein/fat/sugar] intake if I eat it". Maybe some startup can combine a phone camera and some image recognition to do this. The right organization to drive this is the FDA, but they are not acting.

So why doesn't the government act to prevent the obesity epidemic (and yes, that word is appropriate)? Moss spends a bit of time in the book examining this question, interviewing people at the FDA and the Dept of Agriculture. His conclusion is that they aren't incentivized or enabled to act. The food industry is well capitalized and has - for some inescapable reason to me - been able to fight every report of how bad their products are. Regulation is a tricky subject in America, but it seems that even the role of getting information to Americans about how to protect their health is completely broken.

One of the more interesting things I learned from the book is how sophisticated the food industry is in marketing their products. Their segmentation is impressive, and they find the right products, messages and mediums for each segment. They have learned to be on top of trends and perform slight of hand tricks with ease. For instance Americans initially loved their breakfasted cereals when marketed using the word "sugar". When people finally caught on that many of these were 50-70% sugar (!!!) the industry changed their marketing to promote other aspects, and removed the word sugar. Sugar Frosted Flakes became Frosted Flakes. Same thing for "low salt" or "low fat" or "includes some vitamin or nutrient" trends.

This is good to know if you are in the grocery store, as they still use these tricks. If a product is "low sugar", it's probably high in fat and/or salt, and same for "low fat" or "low salt". Or they will pick a nutrient or vitamin and promote that to hide the high amounts of salt, sugar & fat - for instance Tang was marketed as having lots of Vitamin-C (but was and is really bad for you).

One of the biggest trends that led to processed food in the past 40 years is summed up by the word "convenience". That's been a big part of the food industries marketing tactics, and it's worked. Life has become increasingly busy and complex, and we don't have time to go to work *and* shop for and cook a healthy meal. An aspect of this that I hadn't thought about is the rise of dual-working families - we have gone from 50% of women in the workforce in 1970 to 80% today. Families simply don't have time when both parents work to spend hours cooking when they get home. Thus, "convenience", or foods that are easy to buy and make, have risen drastically in that timeframe.

Emotionally, I could see how this marketing worked on me as a kid. Hearing about products that I used to eat and remembered fondly was kind of sad. Capri Sun, lunchables, hot pockets are just a few such examples mentioned in the book, none of which is particularly good for you.

The most damning evidence Moss finds is that none of the executives or insiders he talked to eat their own dogfood. In fact, they all have diets that explicitly prohibit it. I think that's very telling.

Overall, I think book will open your eyes to the "battlefield" for space and attention that goes on in the grocery store, and to pay more attention to the labels. That's a big educational process, but one which everyone needs to learn how to do. We need to force the food industry to stop producing foods that are unhealthy by stopping buying them....more

A quick read, but I enjoyed the focus on generic engineering - which is a topic that rarely think about. It's full of moral decisions and politics (ofA quick read, but I enjoyed the focus on generic engineering - which is a topic that rarely think about. It's full of moral decisions and politics (of course) - but also lots of science. In the end the climax of the book fell short of being interesting, but I felt the substance of the book, along with getting me to think about new things, deserved at least 3 stars....more

Ok I must admit first I only saw the movie, so not sure if the book has a lot more info or not. But I thought I'd review it all the same. Gore, like aOk I must admit first I only saw the movie, so not sure if the book has a lot more info or not. But I thought I'd review it all the same. Gore, like all skilled politicians, is clearly a very good communicator. I came into the documentary very wary, having heard rumors about alternative motives, political agendas, etc. It might still be true. My main criticism with it was the lack of scientific 'proof'. We saw a lot compelling graphs, but didn't hear their sources or meet respected scientists who back them. Gore clearly isn't a journalist.

But despite all that, Gore has given us a lot of good food for thought on a subject that *definitely* matters a lot. So kudos to him! Now I just have to do some more learning - any recommendations?...more

Read this on Graham's recommendation, and it was *fascinating* to hear it from the man himself. Tesla was famous for inventing alternating current (ACRead this on Graham's recommendation, and it was *fascinating* to hear it from the man himself. Tesla was famous for inventing alternating current (AC), which is used in every house and electric motor today. He was a famous scientist of his time, and supposedly there was some rift with him and Edison. It appears actually that Tesla sold his patents and the company that bought them sued everyone else, causing his name to be associated with the suits, even though he wasn't really involved. Tesla is also known for being a little too eccentric later in his career, trying to invent things that were impossible like wireless power.

I found this book a really good read, because Tesla is a character, and not a bad writer! He tells a lot of stories of his childhood, which were a very interesting glimpse into a great mind.

One part I liked was when Tesla was expounding on his personal philosophy of health, or 'focusing on himself'. He was frequently ill and overworked, and had to spend a lot of time working on his health. At one point he says of coffee and tea "These delicious beverages superexcite and gradually exhaust the fine fibers of the brain. They also interfere seriously with arterial circulation and should be enjoyed all the more sparingly as their deleterious effects are slow and imperceptible." He then goes on to say "The truth about this is that we need stimulants to do our best work under present living conditions, and that we must exercise moderation and control our appetites and inclinations in every direction." I think this is my new philosophy.

Tesla was also a believer that he who works harder will be successful. As someone who is starting a company (Goodreads), I'm starting to have a big appreciation for those who can believe in an idea against all odds, when everyone else believes it can't be done. It takes a special kind of person - one driven by passion in their ideas. Tesla's work schedule from college is also inspiring - he would work in the lab from 10am until 5am the next day. I've often heard lots of genius's haven't needed much sleep - I wish I could do that!...more

This book was a pure delight. The subtitle "Adventures of a Curious Character" is spot-on. Feynman gave an amazingly human and honest view into his phThis book was a pure delight. The subtitle "Adventures of a Curious Character" is spot-on. Feynman gave an amazingly human and honest view into his philosophy and take on life, thought a series of stories.

One thing that struck me most deeply was his passion for learning new things. You would think a world-famous Physicist would just be passionate for Physics - but Feynman was curious about everything he saw. He dabbled in art and was successful enough to have a show, he joined a Brazilian Bongo group and competed with them, he hung out in Vegas until he grokked gambling, he spent time in strip bars in Arizona until he figured out how to pick up women, he cracked safes in Los Alamos for fun - the list goes on! My take: you should have your passions - but you should also have your hobbies. I think I need a new hobby :)

I really enjoyed his lessons learned from observing the Brazilian educational system. He noted that many of the students were simply memorizing words and formulas and had no understanding of the concepts they applied to. I think this is not a unique problem in education.

Another lesson learned from Feynman's studies of science is to never take any data for granted. Always always question the sources. Whenever Feynman did an experiment he would re-generate many of the numbers on his own - even if they had been published in other places. For many things we are (and not just in science) standing on the shoulders of giants. The easiest way to be led astray is if those results were never right to begin with.

I think Feynman was in his heart a true educator and scientist, with real integrity. And I think it drove him nuts how many important decisions are made using unscientific principles. This book was a light-hearted attempt to point that out - not to mention, a very entertaining read....more

A fascinating history of science. Ever curious how everything we know about the world came to be - read this! I loved reading about what old greats liA fascinating history of science. Ever curious how everything we know about the world came to be - read this! I loved reading about what old greats like Darwin thought about the world - they were all right about most things, but also very wrong about some things - makes you wonder how much we are wrong about today!

Another interesting piece was how many of the world's prominent scientists had the time to do their research because they came from rich families. Very different from todays notion of 'trust funders'....more